Technical Field
The present invention relates to a semiconductive resin composition, a member for electrophotography and an image forming apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
As one of members for electrophotography for use in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, an intermediate transfer belt formed of a semiconductive resin is known. Recently, image forming apparatuses have been required to have lower cost, and the intermediate transfer belt is required to have lower cost as well. At the same timer, the intermediate transfer belt needs to ensure image quality and durability.
However, it is difficult to control resistance in a semiconductive area while maintaining mechanical properties and durability in variation of environment. Particularly, although extrusion molding with a thermoplastic resin is advantageous to cost reduction because of being capable of producing continuously, resistance deviation in a circumferential direction of the belt due to the die tends to be large.
In order to solve this problem, a method of blowing a gas again from an outer circumference of the tube near the upper end of the mandrel where an extruded tube is most deformed such that the outer circumferential temperature is close to that of the mandrel to control the surface resistance level of the endless belt to be not greater than ±1 order is disclosed.
However, a new device blowing an outer gas from the outer circumference increases production facilities and complicates production process, resulting in cost increase. Therefore, cost reduction is not achieved.
Meanwhile, when the resistance deviation in a circumferential direction is large, a first transfer and a second transfer are difficult to execute at a high resistance portion, resulting in production of defective images. The resistance deviation in a circumferential direction is not sufficiently reduced by conventional technologies. Therefore, a semiconductive resin composition suppressing the resistance deviation is desired.